Untangling a Strange Phenomenon that Both Helps and Hurts Lithium-ion Battery Performance

A schematic depicting how disorder increases and the structure changes when oxygen oxidation strips electrons from oxygen atoms in lithium-rich battery cathodes.

Scientific Achievement

Users and staff at the Molecular Foundry have found that oxygen oxidation, the process that gives lithium-rich batteries greater capacity, also causes them to fail.

Significance and Impact

This is the first complete picture of the process that causes lithium-rich battery cathodes to fail. Better understanding this process will allow researchers to learn how to control its effects, and lead to better performing batteries for consumer products and electric vehicles.

Research Details

In lithium-rich batteries, the electrons used for electrical current come from oxygen oxidation. This reaction allows batteries to make use of 90% of the lithium in the cathode, as opposed to 50% in standard batteries, and store more energy.